JP2008116617A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a camera capable of achieving the reduction of processing cost and improvement of component accuracy. <P>SOLUTION: The camera is equipped with an imaging unit 6, an optical unit 12 arranged to have predetermined positional relation to the imaging unit 6, a base member 100 formed of a metallic plate, and a mount part 103 formed by integrally molding a resin member with a part of the base member 100 as core material. The imaging unit 6 and the optical unit 12 are fixed on the mount part 103. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a camera that images a subject using an image sensor.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a single-lens reflex digital camera, a method using a metal press plate for a main body (rear body) of a camera body is known in order to reduce the size of the camera body (see, for example, Patent Document 1). A front body provided with a lens mount and a mirror mechanism for guiding subject light to the finder optical system is attached to the rear body. In addition, an exterior cover, other structural members necessary for the camera, a circuit board, and the like are also attached to the rear body.

JP 2004-104168 A

  However, in the case of a rear body that uses a metal press plate, in order to attach a front body, other units (circuit boards, etc.), an external cover, etc. to the rear body, the metal press plate is bent for each mounting part, screw hole processing, etc. It is necessary to apply. As a result, the number of man-hours for bending, screw hole processing, etc. on the metal press plate is increased, resulting in an increase in cost, and errors in each bending process are accumulated, resulting in reduced accuracy of the rear body parts. . In particular, an attachment error of the image sensor or the front body causes a deterioration in accuracy with respect to an optical position and distance as a camera.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera comprising: an imaging unit; an optical unit disposed in a predetermined positional relationship with the imaging unit; a base member formed of a metal plate; and a part of the base member as a core material. A first fixing portion that is formed by integrally molding a resin member and to which the imaging unit is fixed, and a second fixing portion that is formed by integrally molding the resin member with a part of the base member as a core material and is fixed. And a fixed portion.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the camera according to the first aspect, the first and second fixing portions are integrally formed on the same resin member.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the camera according to the first or second aspect, a conductive member that electrically contacts the imaging unit and the base member is provided in the first fixing portion.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the camera according to any one of the first to third aspects, the base member is formed with an opening that allows a photographing light beam incident on the imaging unit to pass therethrough, and is formed in a peripheral region of the opening. A resin member region integrally formed so as to be continuous with the first fixed portion.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the camera according to the fourth aspect, in the resin member region, the region where the mechanical strength of the base member is reduced due to the formation of the opening has a resin thickness larger than that of the other resin member regions. A large thick part is formed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the processing cost of the camera body and improve the component accuracy.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 5 are diagrams illustrating an embodiment of a camera according to the present invention, and are diagrams illustrating a configuration of a single-lens reflex digital camera. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the central portion of the camera cut in the horizontal direction. Reference numeral 1 denotes a rear body to which the imaging unit 6 is attached. The rear body 1 is a composite rear body formed by integrally molding a resin member on a base member 100 made of a metal press plate as will be described later.

  The front cover 2 and the rear cover 3 that cover the body main body are fastened to the side portion of the rear body 1 by screws 4. The image sensor base plate 106 on which the image sensor 5 is mounted is fixed to a boss 101 made of a resin member provided on the rear side of the rear body 1 with screws 14. A low-pass filter 7 is provided in front of the image pickup element in the image pickup unit 6 (upward in the drawing). Reference numerals 8 and 9 denote electronic circuit boards on which various electronic components are mounted.

  The electronic circuit board 8 is directly attached to the rear surface of the rear body 1. On the other hand, the electronic circuit board 9 is screw-fixed to a column 10 and a boss 110 provided on the rear surface of the rear body 1. The support column 10 is formed of a metal member different from the rear body 1 and is fastened to the base member 100 by caulking. On the other hand, the boss 110 is formed of a resin member integrally formed with the base member 100. Reference numeral 11 denotes a liquid crystal monitor, and the display screen of the liquid crystal monitor 11 can be observed through an opening 3 a formed in the rear cover 3.

  A front body 12 is attached to the front side of the rear body 1. The front body 12 is fastened by screws 13 to a seating surface 123 (see FIG. 4) formed of a resin member of the rear body 1. In the front body 12, there are provided optical components, a mirror (not shown), and the like that constitute a finder optical system that guides a photographing light beam to a finder eyepiece. A lens mount 15 to which a lens barrel is detachably attached is provided on the front surface of the front body 12, and a shutter 27 is provided on the rear surface of the front body 12.

  A battery case 16 is provided in a portion corresponding to the grip portion of the camera, and a battery 17 is accommodated in the battery case 16. The battery case 16 is fixed to the base member 100 of the rear body 1 with screws 18. A plurality of electronic circuit boards 19, 20, 21 are also arranged on the front side of the rear body 1, the electronic circuit board 20 is fixed to the front surface of the rear body 1, and the electronic circuit board 21 is fixed to the side surface of the front body 12. ing. Reference numeral 22 denotes a strobe capacitor.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view for explaining the body main body. The rear body 1 includes a base member 100 formed from a metal press plate and an attachment portion 103. The attachment portion 103 is provided so as to surround the periphery of the opening 102 of the base member 100, and is formed by insert molding in which a resin member is molded using a metal press plate as a core material. The details of the attachment portion 103 will be described later.

  The front body 12 is screw-fixed to the front side of the mounting portion 103. The boss 104 is a positioning member, and the rear body 1 and the front body 12 are positioned by engaging the boss 104 with a hole 109 (see FIG. 4) formed in the attachment portion 103. A pentaprism 23 and an eyepiece optical system block 24 constituting a finder optical system are attached to the upper portion of the front body 12.

  On the other hand, a bottom plate 25 formed of a metal press plate is screwed to the lower surface of the attachment portion 103. A tripod seat 26 is attached to the bottom plate 25 by caulking, and a support portion 105 formed by bending a metal press plate in a step shape is provided. The support portion 105 is screw-fixed to the bottom surface of the front body 12 and supports the front body 12 from below.

  Positioning convex portions 107a and 107b are formed on the side surface of the image sensor base plate 106 on which the image sensor 5 is mounted. When the image pickup device base plate 106 is screw-fixed to the boss 101, the positioning convex portion 107 a formed on the left side surface of the image pickup device base plate 106 is brought into contact with the side surface of the positioning boss 108 a of the mounting portion 103, thereby picking up an image. The element base plate 106 is positioned in the x direction. Further, the positioning projection 107 b formed on the upper side surface of the image sensor base plate 106 is brought into contact with the lower surface of the positioning boss 108 b of the mounting portion 103, thereby positioning the image sensor base plate 106 in the y direction.

  3 and 4 are views showing the rear body 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the imaging unit attachment side, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the front body attachment side. 3 and 4, the hatched portion shows the attachment portion 103 formed of a resin member. FIG. 5 shows only the base member 100 before the mounting portion 103 is insert-molded.

  As described above, the rear body 1 is formed by integrating the mounting portion 103 with the base member 100 of a metal press plate as shown in FIG. A resin member is molded in a region C surrounded by a broken line in FIG. The base member 100 is formed with a rectangular opening 102 through which a photographic light beam passes, and the photographic light beam that has passed through the opening 102 is incident on the image sensor 5 attached to the rear side of the rear body 1. In the present embodiment, in order to reduce the size and weight of the camera, the dimensions of the base member 100 (for example, the y-direction dimension and the thickness dimension in FIG. 2) are suppressed to such an extent that the strength can be secured. In order to reduce the weight, the lightening 111 is provided to such an extent that the mechanical strength can be ensured.

  As shown in FIG. 3, on the imaging unit side of the mounting portion 103 formed on the rear body 1, bosses 101 (three places) for fixing the imaging unit 6 and bosses 110 (for fixing the electronic circuit board 9) 2), bosses 108a and 108b for positioning the imaging unit, bosses 113 (2 places) for fixing the cover (not shown) of the eyepiece optical system, bosses 114 for fixing the exterior cover (rear cover 3), front Counterbore holes 115 for screwing the body 12 to the rear body 1 (see FIG. 1) are formed. Each of the bosses 101, 110, and 114 is formed with a screw hole into which a male screw of a fastening screw is screwed. For fixing the electronic circuit board 9, the two bosses 110 described above and the struts 10 (two places) fastened to the base member 100 are used.

  As shown in FIG. 5, through holes 201, 210, 212, and 215 are formed at positions where the bosses 101, 110, 108 a and 108 b and the counterbore holes 115 are formed in the base member 100. The resin member forming the bosses 101, 110, 108a, 108b and the counterbore hole 115 is connected to the resin member on the front body side through these through holes 201, 210, 212, 215. That is, the resin member flows into both the front and back surfaces of the base member 100 through these through holes, whereby the mounting portion 103 is insert-molded.

  In addition, the above-mentioned support | pillar 10 is crimped and fastened to the through-hole 210a (2 places) formed in the right side of the base member 100. FIG. Further, since the positioning bosses 108b (two places) provided on the upper side portion of the rear body 1 are located near the upper side of the base member 100, notches 222 instead of through holes are provided at corresponding positions of the base member 100. Is formed.

  Although the thickness of the resin member region other than the boss formation region is formed relatively thin, the upper side region of the range indicated by the symbol A of the base member 100 in FIG. Thick portions 116 and 117 are formed as shown in FIGS. The width dimension of the base member 100 above and below the opening 102 is smaller than the other regions due to the formation of the opening 102, and the mechanical strength of the base member 100 in this region is smaller than that of the other regions. Yes. For this reason, the thick portions 116 and 117 extending in the left-right direction are formed in the portion where the width dimension of the base member 100 is reduced, thereby reinforcing the strength of this portion.

  The bosses 113 and 114 and the counterbore hole 115 described above are formed in the thick portion 116 on the upper side. On the other hand, a boss 118 having a screw hole for fixing the bottom plate 25 (see FIG. 2) is formed in the lower thick portion 117 as shown in FIG. The bottom plate 25 is fixed to the lower surface of the thick portion 117. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a notch 221 corresponding to the boss 118 is formed in a region where the thick portion 117 of the base member 110 is formed, and a tripod seat 26 provided on the bottom plate 25 and A notch 220 is formed to avoid the interference. A boss 119 for routing the lead wire is formed above the thick portion 117 in FIG.

  The base member 100 has a screw hole 120 (FIG. 4) for fixing the outer cover, a through hole 121 (FIG. 3) for screwing the battery case 16, and a position for positioning the battery case 16. Positioning holes 122 (FIG. 3) are respectively formed.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the rear body 300 formed without using insert molding of a resin member. The rear body 300 is formed by bending a metal press plate, caulking, screwing, or the like as in the prior art. It is formed. Holes 302 for fixing the front body 12 with screws are formed above and below the opening 102. In addition, a stay 303 for fixing a cover (not shown) is formed above the opening 102 by bending a metal press plate in a step shape. The stay 303 is formed with a hole 304 for fixing the rear cover.

  Further, the boss 305 to which the imaging unit 6 is fixed is formed of a metal member different from the metal press plate, and is caulked and fastened to the metal press plate. For the purpose of ensuring the positional accuracy of the imaging unit 6 in the optical axis direction, it is necessary to process the accuracy of the upper surface of the boss 305 after fastening. Further, a claw 306 for positioning the imaging unit 6 in the xy direction is formed by bending. Since the claw 306 affects the positioning accuracy of the imaging unit 6, a precise bending process is required. On the lower side of the rear body 300, a stay 308 for attaching the bottom plate is formed by bending. For fixing the electronic circuit board 9, the above-described caulking-fastened support column 10 is used, or a stay 307 obtained by bending a metal press plate is used. Here, both are used together.

In the camera according to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained by configuring the rear body 1 as described above.
(1) In this embodiment, the imaging element unit 6, the electronic circuit board 9, the front body 12, the cover (not shown), and the bottom plate 25 are fixed by insert molding a resin member on the base member 100 made of a metal press plate. A mounting portion 103 to be formed was formed. Therefore, regarding the plurality of fixing bosses formed on the mounting portion 103, the dimensional accuracy and the mutual positional accuracy can be improved to the processing accuracy of the molding die. On the other hand, when the conventional rear body 300 as illustrated in FIG. 6 is used, the metal press plate is subjected to a large number of bending processes or the bosses of different parts are fastened to form the fixing portion. Errors in each bending process are accumulated, and the positional accuracy of the assembly is lowered.
(2) In addition, since all the fixed parts are formed by one molding regardless of the number of fixed parts, the processing cost is low compared to the conventional method in which separate parts or many complicated bending processes must be performed. Reduction can be achieved.

(3) Since the optical units such as the imaging unit 6 and the front body 12 are fastened around the opening 102, fastening members such as bosses are also arranged around the opening, and they are integrated with the mounting portion 103. Formed. Although the strength of the base member 100 decreases in the vicinity of the opening 102, in this embodiment, since the resin member is molded around the opening 102, the strength of the base member 100 can be enhanced by the resin member. Furthermore, since the thick portions 116 and 117 are formed in the narrowed portions of the base member 100 above and below the opening 102, the strength can be further improved. Conversely, since the strength of the opening 102 is reinforced by the resin member, the thickness of the metal press plate can be further reduced.

(4) Further, as shown in FIG. 5, holes 201, 210, 212, 215 and notches 220, 221, 222 for molding the resin member are formed in the base member 100, or as shown in FIG. The boss 305 and the stays 303, 308, and 307 that are conventionally formed of a metal member are replaced with the boss 101 of a resin member. As a result, the weight of the rear body 1 can be reduced.

  In the above-described embodiment, the fastening member in the periphery of the opening 102 is integrally molded with a resin member. However, the support column 10 separated from the opening 102 may be insert-molded with the resin member. . Furthermore, the battery case 16 made of a resin member may be insert-molded into the base member 100. Further, at least one of the bosses 101 may be formed of a conductive member such as a metal, and the imaging unit 6 may be connected to a ground line. By doing so, it is not necessary to provide a separate earth line. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as long as the characteristics of the present invention are not impaired.

It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the camera by this invention, and is a horizontal direction sectional view of the camera center. It is a perspective view explaining a body main part. 2 is a perspective view showing an imaging unit mounting side of the rear body 1. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a front body attachment side of a rear body 1. FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the base member 100 single-piece | unit. It is a perspective view which shows an example of the rear body 300 at the time of forming without using the insert molding of the resin member.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,300: Rear body, 5: Imaging device, 6: Imaging unit, 8, 9, 19-21: Electronic circuit board, 10: Support | pillar, 12: Front body, 24: Eyepiece optical system block, 25: Bottom plate, 100: Base member, 101, 108a, 108b, 110, 113, 114, 118, 305: boss, 102: opening, 103: mounting portion, 111: thinning, 115: counterbore: 116, 117: thick portion, 303, 307, 308: Stay

Claims (5)

An imaging unit;
An optical unit disposed in a predetermined positional relationship with the imaging unit;
A base member formed of a metal plate;
A first fixing portion formed by integrally molding a resin member with a part of the base member as a core material, and fixing the imaging unit;
A camera comprising: a second fixing portion formed by integrally molding a resin member with a part of the base member as a core material, to which the optical unit is fixed. The camera of claim 1,
A camera characterized in that the first and second fixing portions are integrally formed on the same resin member. The camera according to claim 1 or 2,
A camera comprising: a conductive member that electrically contacts the imaging unit and the base member on the first fixing portion. The camera according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
An opening that is formed in the base member and allows a photographing light beam incident on the imaging unit to pass through;
A camera comprising: a resin member region formed in a peripheral region of the opening and integrally formed so as to be continuous with the first fixing portion. The camera according to claim 4, wherein
A camera having a thicker resin portion thicker than other resin member regions formed in the resin member region in a region where the mechanical strength of the base member is reduced by forming the opening. .

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